The Boys Are Back In Town
by sgs09
Summary: Terry’s gang is back in town; they want him to join the group again. When he refuses, he is forced to fight his old friends...without the Batsuit.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:**

_Terry's gang is back in town, and they want him to join up with the group again. When he refuses, things escalate into a hostage situation at his school. Before he even knows it, he is forced to fight his old friends...without the Batsuit._

**Author's Note:**

I admit, I mostly wrote this fic because I wanted to see Terry get caught in a fight without his suit. That's pretty much all this is about. :] However, (surprise, surprise...) I've realized this makes a good prequel to a future story. So hopefully someday I will have a sequel to this.

I own nothing related to Batman Beyond, in any way, shape, or form, other than the ten OC's in here: Vic Martin, Astin and Mercedes, Lucas Daniels, Brad Knox, Drake Benson, Tommy Barlow, Samuel Garrison, Joel Haggin, and Nicholas Haggin.

Beta'd by my sister: onepiecefreec!

* * *

Terry let out a sigh as their teacher got ready to begin her lesson in Family Studies; he was preparing for the coming hour of excruciating pain. He hated this class—which was probably why he had been close to failing it several days ago. If it hadn't been for the stupid egg thing...well, it would have been bad.

He hit a button on his laptop to open the program he used for typing his notes. And that was when the morning went spiraling out of control.

The door to the classroom swung open, and Terry looked up to see a group of young men and a girl not much older than himself walk into the room. All of them were holding large guns and knives. The students around Terry gasped in surprise, and Miss Pinto backed quickly away from the door.

The young man leading the group yelled for quiet from Terry's classmates. He only received more gasps and whimpers of fear in reply. Then, hitting a button to close the classroom's door, the man locked it from the inside.

Every room in the building had that safety feature built into it, just in case there was ever an outside threat. Too bad the threat had come inside first.

Terry sighed darkly. This wasn't good.

The tall young man at the front of the group looked into the crowd of students, his eyes resting almost immediately upon Terry. "McGinnis, we need to talk."

No, this wasn't good at all.

Slag it.

Terry stood slowly, trying not to notice Dana's worried eyes on him. "I'm surprised you're still alive, Victor. I heard you died in that prison riot three years ago."

Vic Martin smiled slightly. "Things aren't always as they seem. You have your secrets, I have mine."

Terry nodded, studying the group of young adults. "What do you want?"

One of the men smirked condescendingly. "We want you to join the gang again, McGinnis—what do you think?"

Terry grimaced. "I think I'll have to take a rain-check on that one, Drake. Thanks, though. How about you call me up for the _next_ reunion."

He knew all ten of the young adults. It was his old gang. He also knew, without a doubt, he would never join the gang again. Working with Wayne now, Terry was on the other side of the law completely. And there was no going back.

"I figured you would say that," Vic said. "You always were the cautious one of the group."

"I see that wasn't much of a problem for you though, Vic. Have fun getting the gang all together again?" Terry smirked. "You always did love to be in control."

"Shut up," Astin said.

"Afraid your big brother can't handle it?" he teased.

"He _said_ 'shut up'!" Mercedes yelled, taking a warning step forward. Ever the faithful girlfriend, she always stood up for Astin, just like he always stood up for his older brother.

"Come on, Terry, don't be like that," Lucas begged. "We could be great again."

"Right—because it worked out so well the first time!"

Vic motioned with his gun for the teacher, Miss Pinto, to sit down at the empty desk on the front row. Then the gang spread out around the room, some of the men moving to stand in the back of the room, behind all of the desks. One man was posted by each window, to make sure no one thought of trying to escape. One guy stood by the door to keep it locked.

That left Vic, his brother and Mercedes in the front of the classroom with the twins, Joel and Nicholas Haggin.

Terry and his thirty-something classmates were surrounded. He had to find a way to get them out of here. On his own, he could maybe take down the rest of the gang—thanks to Bruce's training and his Batman practice. But with the risk of hostages, he was nervous to make a move.

He addressed Vic, knowing the man fashioned himself as the leader of the gang. "How about you let these guys go, Martin."

"No can do, McGinnis," the older man said breezily. "I know how much you always cared for _The Innocents_." He rolled his eyes at the thought. "Even when we were working a job, you were always the one to bug us about the little people."

"You mean the victims?" Terry asked darkly. He forced his heart to slow back down, realizing that his voice had slipped into the tone he used when patrolling the city as Batman.

Vic studied him for a moment. Then, stepping into the midst of the students, he walked to the center of the desks where Terry was standing, his handgun held tightly in his hand. "You know, I figured you might still be a turncoat."

Terry's voice came out deeper and strained with anger. "I never turned, Martin. I _quit_ after you shot that man."

"He was homeless, McGinnis! It was no big deal. No one would ever miss him."

"He was a person." Terry took a step closer to the older man, warningly. "A living, breathing, person."

Vic rolled his eyes. "I figured you would react like this." He took a step back, raising his gun to point at the first student close to him—which just happened to be Dana Tan. She let out a gasp, but stayed in her chair, sitting frozen with fear.

Terry forced himself to hold onto his control. He so wanted to jump the man right now and rip that gun away from Dana's head, but he knew he couldn't with the other nine people surrounding him.

Vic must have seen the fear in his eyes though, because he chuckled. "Still got a thing for Miss Tan, huh? Good to know."

He waved his gun to motion for Dana to stand up. Then putting her between himself and Terry, he backed out of the rows of students and went to stand at the front of the room with Dana. Letting her sit at the teacher's desk up front, he positioned the twins on either side of her, both holding a gun to her.

The twins glanced at each other nervously. It was just for a split second, but Terry caught it, and he felt hope rise in his chest. The twins had always liked him more than Vic. A few of the others guys had too, in fact. That was what caused the breakup of the gang. When Terry left, half of the other members dropped out too. Then things had just fallen apart.

Vic smiled at Terry maliciously. "Since you seem to have lost all sense of loyalty to the group, we'll just have to make use of you some other way." He tossed a phone to Terry, who caught it with one hand. "You're going to call your boss and tell Mr. Wayne that we want his money. A million creds."

Terry studied the older man. "How did you know who I work for?"

He shrugged. "Charlie told me."

Charlie Bigelow was the one member of the gang who was not present. Terry was the only person in the room who knew the full reason of why. As Batman, he had fought Charlie "Big Time" Bigelow on the bridge just outside of Gotham. Charlie had known about Terry's job with Wayne because Terry had gotten him a small job there for a while. But Charlie had never liked living honestly. Ever since his involvement in the gang with Vic, he had been in and out of crime. When Charlie reappeared in Gotham, Terry was forced to stop him as Batman.

One thing led to another, and the fight got rough. The next thing Terry knew, he was fighting for his life on the Gotham Bridge. Then something went wrong, and Charlie fell over. Terry couldn't save him.

Wayne had told him more than once over the past six months that it hadn't been his fault, but Terry couldn't help feeling responsible. He should have been able to keep Charlie from going over. He had known how dangerous it was for them to be fighting there, when the bridge stood so high above the water below them. If he had only been able to grab onto Charlie before...

Terry swallowed as he tried to stop remembering the last time he had seen his old friend.

"I'm not sure even Bruce Wayne could pull a million creds together very quickly," Terry told Vic. "It might take some time..."

"Then you'd better place the call soon," the older man said. He waved his gun at the students in the room. "If I get too tired of waiting, some of your classmates might start to feel it."

Terry held up his hands to pacify him. "I'm going, I'm going." He dialed the familiar number with shaking fingers, but he wasn't sure if he was shaking from fear for Dana and his fellow classmates or from anger towards Vic.

"And don't tell him anything to alert the cops," Vic said suddenly. "We want him to deliver the money to you. We'll let you out of the room when he gets here to grab the creds. Then you're coming right back in, and we're making a switch with you for the students and the money."

Terry pressed the 'call' button without replying.

Bruce picked up on the third ring, his voice sounding slightly groggy. _"Bruce Wayne."_

"Hey, old man," Terry said, not completely faking his smile. He had wondered when the man slept. Apparently it was during Terry's hours in school. "I have a bit of a sticky situation, and I need to ask you for some creds."

Even when he was barely awake, Wayne noted the code words 'sticky situation' and understood that something was wrong. _"Who's in danger?"_

"Yeah, I'm at school, hanging out with my classmates. I kind of need some money for a school thing though. It's a fundraiser."

The message was received; ransom demands were referred to as 'fundraisers'.

"_Someone's holding you and your classmates hostage?"_

"Yeah. Just hanging out with some old friends," Terry repeated, stressing 'old' only slightly. It was slight, but he knew Bruce would catch it.

"_Members from the gang or people we've gone up against before?"_

"Exactly. It's a bit of a group project, and I never raised the money I was supposed to add to my team's funds."

"_So it's your old gang?"_

"Yeah. And I kind of need the money right now. So if you could run a few creds down to me, that would be great. I'll totally pay you back."

"_Should I send Barbara to help?"_

"No need to wake up your secretary," Terry said. He didn't want the cops trying to enter the scene and startling Vic into doing something he wouldn't regret. "I doubt she would do anything you couldn't. Just bring the creds down to the school. You know where it is, right?"

"_McGinnis, are you still in Family Studies or did you move to your Physics class yet?"_

It shouldn't have surprised Terry that Wayne knew his schedule, or that he knew which class Terry should be in at this very moment, but it still gave him a pause. For a second, his mind almost went blank.

"Uh...yeah, great." Then he got a hold of himself again. "I'll come get the money from you at the front of the school as soon as Family Studies lets out."

"_I'm pulling up some of the security cameras from the classroom to see what you're dealing with. Can you slip away and put on the suit?"_

"No, this school thing is pretty urgent. They need the money today, like in an hour, and I have class until then."

"_Okay, this is what we're going to do. I see your classroom and the guys surrounding you. When I come to bring you the money they want, you'll slip out of the room to get it, like you said. Grab your backpack when you leave, change outside, and take the group down."_

That sounded a little dangerous to Terry, with the many classmates in the room, but he knew it was the best thing Bruce could think of. And if it was the best plan Bruce could come up with...

"Right," he said. "I need a million creds."

_Bruce growled. "A million? Seriously? Those greedy—"_

Terry coughed. "Yeah. Yeah, it's uh, I've been forgetting to pay the installments ever since the beginning of the year, so the school would like its money in an hour or I'll be trouble."

Bruce sighed. _"Just don't get yourself killed while you're waiting for me to arrive. I'll bring the real money, just in case you can't take them down in the suit."_

"Appreciated," Terry said, forcing a thin smile in Vic's direction. "I'll see you when you get here, Wayne. Thanks."

"_Thirty minutes at the earliest."_

Terry hung up at those words, knowing there was nothing left for him to say. He tossed the phone back to Vic, stopping himself just before he could throw it like a batarang.

At least they had a plan now, sucky as it may be.

* * *

**AN:**

I really had fun writing that phone call... It made me happy. *laugh*


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** I only own the gang members, not anything actually connected to Batman Beyond. If I had rights to anything of the show, it would still be running on tv.

* * *

After only ten minutes of waiting, the gang was getting antsy. And so were Terry's classmates. The room was silent as some of the gang members canvassed the room, walking by desks and aiming their weapons at whoever happened to be closest.

Finally, in the stress of the moment, Nash snapped. "Stop pointing that thing at me!" he roared at the guy passing his desk.

Immediately, all focus of the room turned on him. Drake Benson raised the gun slightly more to point it directly at Nash's forehead. "I really don't think you want to mess with me," he said in a harsh tone.

Terry knew for a fact that Drake was right too. He was the man on the group who was least bound by moral obligations. He had killed several people even before joining the gang. Terry suspected that he had killed even more while in the gang, but he had never had proof. It had bothered Terry a lot, but he hadn't been able to do a thing about it when Drake had Vic's full support in the group. It wasn't until Vic killed someone that Terry finally realized he had to call it quits with the gang.

"Leave him alone, Benson," Terry told the man.

Drake immediately focused his glare on him. "You gonna order me around now, McGinnis? I _dare_ you to try."

"Just saying he's not worth your time. He's about five years younger and stupider than you."

Terry ignored the protests that rose from Nash's mouth. And a quick wave of Drake's gun silenced the boy.

Then Drake Benson focused on Terry again. "It may be true, but I still don't like you ordering me around, _Terrence_." There was venom in his voice.

Astin chuckled at the front of the room. "Maybe we need some entertainment. What do you think, Vic?"

Terry didn't take his eyes off of Drake, knowing the man might strike at any moment, and not knowing whether the victim would be Nash or himself. But he figured Vic shrugged, because he heard the leader speak in a calm and slightly amused tone.

"Why not?"

Astin walked over to Drake. "What do you say we have a bit of a showdown? It's not like we got anything better to do."

"And it's not like we need Terry for anything more than handing us the creds," Drake added.

"Exactly. So what do you say, McGinnis? You wanna fight your old buddy, Drake Benson?"

This was so not good.

"Just calm down, Benson," Terry said. "I didn't mean anything by what I said."

Drake laughed loudly. "Look Astin, he's scared. Poor baby Terry hasn't kept in shape since he quit the gang, and he knows he'll be pummeled."

Not exactly, but Terry didn't want to contradict him. "I'd just rather not endanger my classmates. How about you let the other hostages go, _then_ we fight?" At least then he would be able to fight full out, no longer worrying for his fellow students and friends.

Terry heard a click from a gun being readied at the front of the room, and couldn't help looking over. Vic was holding a gun to Dana's head. And while the twins might not have shot an innocent girl, Vic definitely would.

Terry let out an angry sigh. "I'm coming," he growled, already taking a few steps towards the front of the room. As he walked, he began to note all of the items in the room that he could use as weapons. If this fight turned out the way he pictured it—with him beating up Drake—then the others would probably consider it a threat and attack him. It seemed that he couldn't wait for Bruce. Things were already in motion and he was going to have to take down the gang without his suit.

Great.

The Haggin brothers pulled Dana and the teacher's desk closer to the wall and out of the way. Then Lucas Daniels, Brad Knox, Tommy Barlow, and Samuel Garrison began to work on getting students to shift all of the desks into a circle around the main portion of the room.

It only took a few minutes for the room to be completely repositioned.

Terry, Drake, and Vic stood in the center of the circle created by the desks. The Haggins stayed with Dana on their side of the room, and the rest of the gang found places to stand behind different students, monitoring the whole circle in a group effort.

Vic smiled as he looked from Terry to Drake. "We'll be taking bets now. My money is on Benson."

Bets were placed quickly, as members of the gang all put in their word on who they thought would win. Sammy Garrison was the first to put his money on Terry. The others eyed him for a moment, almost daring him to show support to their 'enemy,' but Garrison explained it away.

"Just making things interesting, boys. No need to worry. We haven't seen what Terry can do yet, and I for one, like to bet on the mystery man every time. Fear the unknown, they say."

That gave Terry a pause for a second, because it was definitely not something Samuel would have said five years ago when the gang was still together. Sammy was the second youngest of the group, only older than Terry. He was also one of the softer members, not liking to use violence whenever they were on the job.

When Terry studied Samuel though, he realized that the young man looked slightly nervous, as if he was bluffing. The boy used to be terrible at poker. Terry grinned slightly, realizing that the young man still held some loyalty to him. It was totally called for too, with everything Terry had done for him over the years.

That meant he had three possible supporters: the Haggin twins and Samuel Garrison. That would help. Now he just wondered about Tommy Barlow. There was no telling about him just yet.

Max caught his eye in the ring of students. She looked worried, and tried to ask him wordlessly if he had a plan. Terry sent her a slight smile to keep her calm.

* * *

**AN:** Fight...fight...fight...!


	3. Chapter 3

**AN:** I own nothing but the gang-members who get their butts kicked in this chapter, the gang members who surrender, and this badly-choreographed fight scene.

* * *

Terry figured that he could take Drake Benson, even if the man had been practicing since they last saw each other. Terry had been practicing as well. It wasn't Drake that worried him. It was all of the other guys.

Vic finished taking the bets. Terry was interested to know that three people had bet on him. Sammy, the older of the Haggin twins, and Tommy Barlow. Maybe that was a hint as to whether or not the man would support Terry.

Vic waved for Astin and Mercedes to step out of the ring. Then he looked from Terry to Drake again, taking Drake's gun from him. "May the best man win." His voice said clearly whom he thought that man should be.

Drake grinned evilly at Terry. Then he attacked without warning and without waiting for Vic to fully leave the circle of desks.

Terry easily dodged the first blow, because he had plenty of time to prepare as Drake charged. He vaguely remembered Drake's fighting style, since the whole group had worked together to practice, and then fought together every night when they went out. He only hoped the rest of the gang wouldn't jump in early...

Drake hit the ground after a short flurry of attacks on both of their parts. He rolled to his feet with a growl, a flash of steel glinting in the light of the window as he pulled a knife from his pocket. Max screamed something in warning, but Terry had already seen it.

He dodged the first jab of the knife, much like he had dodged the first fist. The second slice was harder to escape. It cut the air a little too close to him for comfort.

"Didn't think you could take me without a weapon?" Terry taunted. It was the first of many such taunts that Terry would dish out during the fight.

Drake attacked again with a yell. Terry was forced to go on the defensive. For several minutes, he dodged swipes of the knife and taunted the man, only getting nicked a time or two as he fought to survive. It was a little hard to dodge the knife without his Batsuit, Terry realized. He was so used to having the suit's added strength and agility. But he now understood why Bruce often had him train without the suit, always telling Terry that he needed to prepare himself for a fight if the suit malfunctioned.

Another slice of Drake's knife had Terry emitting a startled gasp of pain as it sliced his stomach. He knew without looking that the wound wasn't deep, only wide, but this was when he finally decided that he needed to change the situation to suit him better. Now that he had come to understand Drake's fighting style again, it was safe to go on the offense. He knew what to expect.

Backing away from Drake a few steps, Terry began to grin, knowing it would disarm his old buddy. "The real fight begins now, Benson."

This time it was Terry who charged first. He drove at the older man with a speed that Bruce would have approved of. A quick right hook, followed by a strong kick, sent Drake to his knees. Terry used an elbow to knock the young man unconscious. Then, deftly, he grabbed the knife from the man's limp grasp, closing it, and quickly jumped back into the middle of the ring to wait for his next opponent.

He didn't have to wait long. Lucas Daniels and Brad Knox both jumped him at the same time, almost as soon as they realized their comrade was down.

Terry grimaced as he realized he would have to take these guys down quickly if he wanted to get to Vic before the man started hurting Terry's classmates. If he let things escalate for too long, Vic wouldn't let it end well.

Besides, Terry never liked Lucas and Brad terribly much anyway. He barely felt bad for taking them down so quickly. Wasting no time to figure out their fighting styles, he sent them both to rest in a pile near Drake. They were down for the count after only a minute or two of fighting. Fortunately for him, they hadn't been very coordinated.

Vic let out a savage growl when Lucas went down. "That is _it!_" He stalked quickly to Max's desk and yanked her up to stand in front of him, positioning his gun to rest against her head. "McGinnis, you are _way_ out of line."

Terry tried not to show his fear as he took a pacifying step backwards. "Your guys jumped _me_."

"It seems you've learned some new tricks," Vic sneered. "Though I would have thought going up against your old friends would be against your code of morals. I guess all things really do change."

"Let her go, Martin."

"Not until she's a corpse, McGinnis."

Terry felt the rage rush through his veins at that. He knew the man wasn't bluffing—he would easily kill Max if Terry let him.

That meant Terry simply couldn't let him.

Vic took his gun off of Max and pointed it at Terry. That was his first mistake.

He greatly underestimated Terry's speed too, most likely thinking he would be able to raise the gun back to Max's temple before Terry took a step closer to him. Mistake number two.

Terry dove at him.

With a trained move, Terry grabbed the gun with his hands, jumping into the air. He heard and felt the explosion as he ripped the gun from the man's hand, but he ignored it, twisting his body sideways so that he could swing his legs around Max's side and kick Vic in the ribs.

Rolling to the ground, he squeezed his hand around the gun, clicking the safety on with a practiced twitch of his finger. He watched as Vic fought to sit up on the ground, holding an arm to his bruised side. Max had already hurried out of the ring of desks, but Astin's raised gun convinced her to sit back down.

Terry pulled himself to his feet with the help of a nearby desk. His side was stinging, and he knew that if he looked, he would find blood. He only hoped he would be able to hold it together long enough for him to take out Vic and the rest of them. The gun had gone off almost in his hands. He felt the flash-burns from having a hold on the gun like that when it fired, but knew he couldn't pause to let himself think about those. At least the bullet hadn't hit him anywhere vital. It only scraped against his side. He'd had worse before and stayed out to patrol the city.

Terry positioned himself in a defensive stance, watching as Vic struggled to stand up. Terry's kick to the ribs had obviously done some damage. His eyes locked onto the steely gaze of Vic Martin, and he grinned. "Want to come out and play, Martin?"

Vic leveled deadly eyes on Terry, who returned them with a Batglare that would have frozen most grown men into immobility. The adrenaline and rage coursing through Vic sent him into an offensive mode though. He jumped to his feet and charged.

Terry was ready for it. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the gun skittering across the floor to land under Max's desk. Then he ran towards Vic, forcing all of the pain in his body to flee from his mind, thanks to Bruce's training.

The fight was tough. Vic was better at one-on-one combat than any of the other members of the gang. But then, it had always been him and Terry who used to duel. Terry used to find it funny that he, the youngest, was always the one to duel with the oldest member of the team. They had been on an even skill level at the time however. And it seemed as if not much had changed on that account.

A punch from Vic almost landed Terry on his butt. His head was reeling from the blow, but he forced himself to stay on his feet. The most dangerous position for him would be to land on the floor. A fighter couldn't protect himself from attacks if he was down.

Feeling slightly dizzy, Terry drove at Vic. He missed the man completely, but took another two running steps towards the desks and jumped to kick off from the one in front of him. His back flip was nearly perfect as he flew over Vic's head.

That's what the man got for trying to charge at him from behind.

Terry landed two quick and solid punches into Vic's back. Then he unleashed a strong kick to the legs to send the man to the ground.

Terry stood over him for a moment, breathing hard and planning his next move. "Ready to give up, Martin?"

Vic glared up at him. "Not in _your_ lifetime!"

There was a movement on Terry's left, but Vic held up a hand to stop the approaching Astin. "Stay where you are. I'll handle this."

Terry had no other warning than the tone of his voice. Vic threw himself up from the floor with a deft move and came at him.

Terry dodged the first two punches, but the kick landed in his stomach, not only knocking the breath out of him, but also straining the knife wound he had already received. He fell against the desks, gasping for air, and Vic was on him before he could do anything.

Dana screamed his name in warning.

Vic grabbed a fistful of Terry's hair, pulling his head up so they could look each other in the eye. "Ready to give up yet, McGinnis?" he taunted.

Terry grimaced. His voice came out in his Batman tone without him even meaning to. "In your dreams, Martin. I'm just getting started."

Where he found the energy from, he would never know. He decided to chalk it up to a sudden adrenaline rush. But he felt a second wind run through him right about the same time that he caught his breath again. He shoved his pain to the back of his mind yet again. Then he punched Vic hard in the gut, and threw an elbow into the back of his head when Vic doubled over. A kick sent the older man reeling. He followed quickly.

Vic began throwing blind punches wildly as he tried to regain his balance. Terry dodged the fists and kicked at Vic's legs to throw him off more. Then he slammed his elbow into the man's back and threw him towards the floor.

Vic landed hard. But he refused to stay down. With weak arms, he slowly pushed himself up from the floor, into a kneeling position.

"Vic!" Astin yelled.

"No," he gasped out, fighting to stand.

Terry took a step backwards. "We can end this, Victor. You can leave right now. I'll let you walk out if you just call your guys off."

Vic looked up at him. "You're right, McGinnis—we _can_ end this. Here and now."

He dove at Terry, but the younger man was ready for him. Knowing he had to end this fight before it went any further, Terry used a lesson from Bruce. With a flurry of punches and kicks, he blocked Vic's attack and staged one of his own.

Only a few seconds later, Vic was lying on the floor, unmoving.

Terry only had a split second to gasp for air before Astin let out a yell. He barely turned to dodge from Astin and Mercedes in time.

Terry only had a split second to gasp for air before Astin let out a yell. He barely turned to dodge from Astin and Mercedes in time.

These two were in synch. Few fighting duos seemed to so clearly understand each other. Terry had seen it a few times before, and had fought against a few couples like them, but it was always hard. Even having sparred with the two of them before, Terry wasn't sure what to expect.

Astin and Mercedes seemed to read each others' minds with the way they moved together. Terry remembered that well from the last time he had seen them. They had always been masters of a creative attack, too.

Going against two uncoordinated attackers was easy. You just had to dissect each attack quickly and respond in time to block the next person's blow. But when two enemies were fighting perfectly in synch with each other, it was a whole different story.

They charged together.

"Handcuffs, Max!" Terry yelled.

He began to block the rain of blows, dodging all that he could from both sides of himself. Astin and Mercedes both attacked from opposite sides of Terry, making it hard for him to keep an eye on the both of them.

He felt like he was truly fighting for his life. He couldn't possibly dodge every single blow from the two of them. They were too organized and practiced. He was too tired and wounded.

Only after sending them both reeling with a jump-kick that strained every sore part of his body, did Terry hold up his hands to catch the cuffs from Max. She had found them in his backpack fortunately, and threw them with a swift flick of her wrist.

When Astin and Mercedes attacked again, Terry was ready. He grabbed Mercedes's arm, throwing a kick backwards to stop Astin. Then swinging the handcuffs to lock around Mercedes's wrist, he yanked her towards her boyfriend, slamming them into each other and locking Astin's wrist into the second cuff.

He hoped it would be enough to throw them off. At least they wouldn't be able to attack from opposite sides anymore.

For a second, Terry felt a humorous smile rise to his lips as he stepped back. The couple looked down at their connected wrists and then at each other, surprised. But he didn't have time to get comfortable, because Mercedes shrugged happily, and the two of them grabbed hold of each other's hands, both turning to attack Terry with perfectly timed precision.

He didn't have time to let the annoyed groan escape his lips, but he felt it inside.

Their coordination was impeccable, even linked together. While one was throwing a punch at him, the other was kicking. As one went high, the other went low. They were a brilliant team.

As the fight wore on, Terry began to lose ground. They were wearing him down. The duo was pushing him backwards, into his fellow students. He couldn't hold them back much longer.

He took a final step in retreat, but ran into the desk behind him. He glanced back momentarily to see where he was, and that was his mistake. A split second of distraction, and the duo was all over him.

But that was their mistake.

They attacked quickly, not thinking about the fact that all of the other conscious gang members were on the other side of the room, and that Nash was sitting at the desk Terry had backed into. Terry ducked below the duo's clasped hands and slipped between the couple as they dove for him. Then with a quick motion he slammed them down against the desks they were facing. Nash and one of his buddies took over there, holding the couple from moving and from getting off of the desks they were now practically laying on top of. Thanks to Terry's attempt to knock them out, they weren't even struggling anymore.

Breathing hard, Terry stepped back into the middle of the room, fully expecting the next attack to come at any moment from any direction. There were still four standing gang members. Plus, there was no telling if any of the earlier gang members had woken up and were just waiting to attack until they thought he wasn't suspecting it.

His eyes locked onto Samuel Garrison. He nodded his chin at the boy in recognition. "What do you say, Sammy? You have a score to settle as well?"

Samuel lowered the large knife in his hand, moving it away from the girl he had been standing guard beside. "I won't fight you," he told Terry. "But I won't fight any of them either, if they wake up."

Terry nodded. "Fair enough. Tommy?"

Tommy Barlow lowered his knife as well. "I'm with him. But just for the record," he added with a grin, "it was awesome to see someone take down Vic like you just did."

Terry nodded his thanks, not bothering to think about that. He focused instead on the two Haggin twins at the far side of the room, guns still pointed at Dana's head.

She was pale, but she seemed to be holding it together. Terry could tell that she was angry. She was casting furious glances at the two gunmen.

Terry walked out of the ring of students, approaching the two young men. He didn't even say anything, just came to a stop in front of the teacher's desk, eyeing them both.

Joel Haggin, the older twin, gave in without hesitation. He lowered his gun, shrugging. "Just doing my duty, McGinnis. You know I was never a violent kind of guy."

Nicholas followed quickly, lowering his gun. His eyes were apologetic, but he shrugged instead of saying anything. As long as Terry had known him, he had never heard Nicholas say a word. He wasn't even sure the younger boy could; Joel always spoke for the both of them, though once you knew them, you could tell he took his younger brother's opinions into account before they did anything.

The brothers both took a step away from Dana.

Terry nodded his acceptance, then held a hand out to Dana to get her away from the desk, and led her to the side of the room. Pressing the buttons to unlock the door, he gave her a light push towards the exit. "I'll be out in a few minutes."

She smiled tightly at him, looking slightly dazed still. "Are you okay?"

He tried not to wince as all of his aches and pains suddenly started calling out to him. "Yeah. Fine. I'll find you outside the school as soon as I'm done here."

Then he looked at his classmates, waving towards the door. "Everyone, now is the perfect time to get out of here. I'll stick around for a few minutes to make sure that no one wakes up early."

Everyone practically raced out of the room as if there were gunmen still chasing them. Everyone except for Max, Nash, and Nash's one buddy, Deke. Max handed Terry his backpack, studying him from head to toe as she noted all of his injuries. Nash and Deke continued to hold the no-longer-struggling pair of connected gang members.

* * *

**AN:** I will say only—I apologize. Fight scenes are not my forte, it appears. I hope you could follow most of that.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN:** See previous disclaimers—I own nothing but the gang members (excluding Terry and Charlie). If I owned Batman Beyond, it would still be running on our tv's and life would be wonderful...

* * *

When Terry passed by the restrained Astin and Mercedes, Nash slammed a hand roughly on his shoulder in congratulations. "Way to go, freak! I didn't know you had it in you to do anything like that. It was actually almost impressive."

Terry smiled tightly, trying to ignore the fact that his shoulder now hurt a lot worse than it had moments ago.

"Do I even want to know why you carry handcuffs on you at all times?" Nash joked rudely.

"Shut up," Terry said, not in the mood. He could feel his adrenaline falling, and his legs were shaking. "A friend of mine is a cop, and she left them at my house on accident."

Not exactly a lie. Commissioner Gordon had been at Wayne's mansion a few days ago to discuss one of Batman's latest busts in the crime world, and her handcuffs had somehow ended up being left behind in the cave. Terry had put them in his backpack to return the next time he swung by her office.

"Terry," Dana's soft voice called from the doorway.

He turned quickly, but hazy vision caused him to sway slightly on his feet. Max and the returning Dana were quickly by his side, asking him if he was okay. Max pulled out a seat for him, and he gladly took it, feeling lightheaded.

"I'll be fine," he told both of the girls. "I was just..."

"Shot," Samuel Garrison finished for him.

"What!?" both Max and Dana yelled at the same time.

Terry sent Samuel a dirty look. "I'm fine. It's not that bad." But his wince belied the words of comfort.

Tommy Barlow shook his head in an exasperated fashion. "McGinnis, you've really got to get over your hero-complex. Let me have a look at you."

Sliding the knife into his pocket with practiced ease, Tommy came over to Terry's side. He waved a hand at the young man's chest. "Come on. Off with the shirt and let me see what I'm dealing with."

Terry glared at him, not really wanting Dana to see all of the damage he knew was hidden by his shirt. "You know you're not really a doctor, right Barlow?"

Tommy grinned at him. "So you think you're the only one who grew up. Five years is a long time, kid."

Terry was surprised, but thrilled. "You really did it, Barlow?"

The young man couldn't hide his pride. "Been officially licensed for about six months. I'm a doctor now." His eyes grew more serious as he crossed his arms. "So let's get on with this, Terrence. I can't help you without seeing how much damage there is."

Dana took a step closer to him. "Terry, if he can help..."

Terry let out a sigh as he knew he would lose this battle. He held up his burned hands for Tommy to see. "I might need a bit of help." He didn't really want to admit it, but his hands were aching from the flash-burns he had gotten while grabbing Vic's gun earlier.

With Tommy's help, the shirt came off to reveal the mass of bruises and cuts covering Terry's chest and arms. Nash mumbled something in surprise. Max let out a gasp, and tears rose in Dana's eyes.

Terry smiled weakly. "I'll be okay. It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks."

Tommy, who was already kneeling in front of him to inspect the bullet wound, shot him a look of doubt, knowing that he was lying through his teeth. But he said nothing, much to Terry's relief.

"It just winged you," he announced a moment later. "You're one lucky kid. It will only take a few stitches to fix this up. The slice on your stomach too."

Terry nodded, too tired to say anything. He had known already that neither wound was life-endangering. Still, at least now Dana could stop looking quite so worried.

In the silence, a shrill ringtone cut through the moment. Nash pulled a phone from Vic's unconscious form, tossing it to Terry with a shrug.

Terry flipped it open, holding it carefully with his injured hand. "Yeah?"

"_I'm here,"_ a deep voice said over the phone.

"You can just come to the classroom, old man. Room #324. Things are under control."

There was a slight pause as Wayne digested all that Terry meant. _"Are you all right?"_

Terry winced as Tommy's hand probed his bruised ribs. "Uh, yeah. I'm fine."

"You're _fine_!?" Dana all but yelled. "You look like you got hit by a bus!"

There was silence on the phone for a long moment. _"Terry...? Is there something you want to tell me?"_

"I'll be fine," Terry answered darkly. "I'm just gonna need a day to recoup."

"_I'm on my way,"_ Bruce growled, not bothering to argue with him just yet.

Terry grimaced as he hung up the phone. "Mind helping me get dressed again, Barlow? My boss will kill me if he sees this damage."

Dana made a rude comment about what his boss _should _do, but Max shushed her.

Tommy stood to his full height so that he could glare down at the younger man. He was only slightly surprised that his glare didn't even faze Terry. The teen only stared back at him impassively.

Tommy couldn't hold back his grin. "You've grown up, Terr. You're looking good, aside from the bullet wound there. But no, I'm not going to help you hide your scars, dude. I'm calling a doctor instead. I don't have any equipment with me."

Terry waved him away. "No, no, that's fine. Trust me, my boss will take me somewhere, I'm sure." He didn't bother to explain that his boss would take him back to Wayne Manor and patch him up on his own.

"By the way guys, thanks for sticking up for me," Terry said, addressing the four gang members still standing of their own free-will.

Samuel immediately stopped him there. "We didn't do anything, McGinnis."

"Exactly. You didn't fight me, and you didn't shoot my girlfriend." He cast a pointed look towards the Haggin twins. "So thank you, guys. It's nice to know loyalty doesn't always disappear with time."

Tommy clapped him on the shoulder, making sure to miss all serious injuries. "You would have done it for us. And besides, we really have to give you our thanks. None of the four of us wanted back in the group, but Vic wouldn't hear of it. We were too scared for our own families to stand up to him. And you just took him down."

Samuel and the Haggin brothers nodded in full agreement, repeating their own appreciation.

Terry was too surprised to say anything.

Tommy's eyes darkened as he glanced back at Vic's unconscious body. "He threatened my daughter, Terr. She's only two years old, and he threatened her. Said he would get the gang back together no matter what. He had some grand idea about getting us back to the height of our last run. He was putting out word on the street too, saying we were going to make a comeback. Charlie hinted that you might not want back in, but Vic said he would make use of you one way or another. Then...man, the plans he was cooking up—you should have heard him talking!"

Terry froze when he realized what Tommy had just said.

The man shook his head, turning back to Terry. "It's a good thing you stopped it from getting any further."

"Yeah," Terry said, still searching for words—and for air. "Uh, sure. Just...doing my job. Protecting my crew..."

Tommy noticed that something was wrong. "Terr? What are you thinking about?"

"You said Charlie's name. He uh, he and Vic were planning this months ago? I wouldn't have thought Vic could wait so long to make a move."

He shrugged. "I suppose they could have been planning this for months. Vic did get to all of us one by one before coming down to see you. But he'd been planning today for less than forty-eight hours. Charlie was the one to suggest we use the school."

Terry wasn't sure if it was the possible concussion, the blood loss, or the falling adrenaline rush, but he felt lightheaded. Tommy's hand on his shoulder was the only thing that kept him from sliding off the chair.

"Woah, Terr. You okay? How many fingers am I holding up?"

Terry shook his head. "Charlie's alive..."

Max took a step closer. "Terry."

Tommy looked between them. "Something I should know?"

His eyes caught sight of the clock on the wall and he realized that Bruce would arrive at any second. "You'd better get out of here, you guys. As far as I remember, there were only six armed assailants in this hostage situation." He glanced at the Nash, Deke and the girls. "Right, guys?"

The girls nodded quickly, but Nash and Deke glanced at each other nervously before agreeing.

Tommy eyed him for a moment. Then, knowing he wasn't going to get an answer to what he was wondering, he smiled and clapped Terry on the shoulder again. He made a signal to the other three members, and they began to follow him out of the classroom, each pausing only long enough to pat Terry's shoulder and say goodbye.

"Hold up, guys," Terry called before they could leave.

They hesitated.

He grinned at the four. "I'll see you at the next reunion."

Tommy laughed. "Yeah, and maybe at the next one we could do without the attempted murder and hostage situation."

"And maybe with more food," Sammy added. "We were a bit lacking as it was."

Terry smiled. "We'll do that. I'll call you guys sometime."

Joel frowned in confusion. "You don't have any of our numbers, McGinnis."

"Don't you worry about that," he replied easily. "I'll find you when it's time."

The four grinned as they waved goodbye and made their escape from the classroom. It wasn't a moment too soon because Wayne came barreling into the room less than a minute later. Unfortunately, Terry was still shirtless.

"What happened?" he asked roughly when he caught sight of him.

Terry grimaced. He was _so_ getting a lecture for this. He had endangered his classmates' lives by starting a fight with Drake. He hadn't followed Bruce's plan. He had gotten hurt. Suffice to say, Bruce did not look happy.

"There was little I could do," Terry began. "The situation escalated quickly, and I had no choice but to fight Drake."

"There's always a choice, McGinnis," his boss growled.

Terry pretended to ignore it. "Once I took down Drake, the others just started coming at me. Before I knew it, I had all of them down on the ground."

Wayne glanced at Max and Dana before focusing back on Terry. "How bad?"

"Pretty bad," Max answered for him.

Terry knew it would be futile to lie, especially with Max and Dana right there, but that didn't stop him from downplaying the pain. "Nothing broken. Just a bullet wound that needs some stitches, some bruised ribs, and a few nicks here and there."

Wayne nodded, pulling out his phone already. "A possible concussion from the look in your eyes, and a clean knife wound across your stomach. Don't think you can hide those flash-burns on your hands, either." He pressed a button on the phone. "Barbara? Yeah, I've got a trash pick-up for you at Terry's school. From the looks of it, five men and a woman. Yes. Call me when you get here."

For a second he eyed Terry. "Six?" He asked, letting Terry know that he had realized the amount of unconscious bodies was less than originally planned.

Terry only shrugged. "Sometimes people aren't what you expect."

Wayne sent him a warning look that they would be having a _long_ discussion once they had some privacy.

Well, at least it looked like the gang wouldn't be getting back together after all. And just think of it—Tommy "The Slicer" Barlow was a doctor now, with a two year-old daughter. Time definitely changed things.

"Which one was the leader?" Wayne asked, surveying the unconscious bodies.

"Vic Martin," Terry said, pointing him out. "And that guy's his brother, Astin."

Wayne smirked. "Astin Martin?"

"What?"

He shook his head. "Before your time."

**Author's Note:**

Hope that was some fun for someone! I'm thinking this could be the prequel to a larger story in which Terry has to go after Charlie (who, as you now see, is apparently still alive... *dun dun _dunnnnn_!*)

If I write it, Terry will probably join up with Tommy, Samuel, and the Haggin twins for some backup. ;] Mostly just because I had fun writing them.


End file.
